You'd have to say the wire on the standard Wii sensor bar is of a reasonably generous length, but the fact it's wired at all irritates some, leaving wires trailing around if you don't have your TV and Wii set up how Nintendo originally envisioned. We took the Duracell wireless Wii sensor bar for a spin to see if it's worth going wireless all together.

Setting up the Duracell sensor bar could hardly be any easier. Slot in the four included AA batteries, switch it on and that's it — you don't need to synchronise it to your Wii, just place it where you want.

Aside from tidying away wires, the obvious advantage of a wireless sensor bar is being able to place it where you like, and while the Duracell bar isn't quite as inconspicuously slim as its wired counterpart it'll probably still fit anywhere you need.

The major problem we found during our play test is that the range of the sensor isn't as good as the traditional wired bar: in a medium-sized living room setting we had to stand no further than 6' away from the TV for it to pick up the pointer. If you only intend to play Wii Sports this won't be much of a problem, but if you're more of a sofa-loving Wii gamer you might find the range too small. Of course you can pick up the bar and move it onto a coffee table, sofa arm and so on, though that alters the pointer's point of reference: you're consciously pointing at the bar, not at the screen.

If you just want a sensor bar that lives around your TV without the hassle of wires, the Duracell wireless Wii sensor bar does the job: it's not too chunky, the battery life is good and it's incredibly simple to set up. However consider what kind of range you need before your purchase — while it's ideal for small spaces and at close range, it's not at its best when chilling out on the couch.